ROYAL WEDDING

Kate ‘will not obey’: Bride will follow Diana’s lead
and ditch ancient vow as she pledges to ‘love, comfort, honour and keep’

Kate Middleton will not vow to 'obey' Prince William in her wedding vows - following Princess Diana's lead, it was claimed last night.

The bride-to-be will instead promise to 'love, comfort, honour and keep' her husband.

The couple have decided themselves what they want to say in their vows.

Diana ditched royal protocol when she wed Prince Charles in 1981 and controversially did not vow to 'obey'.

But Diana, then just 20, failed to set a trend among royals. Sarah Ferguson and Sophie Rhys-Jones promised to obey in 1986 and 1999 respectively.

William, 28, and Kate 29, who marry at Westminster Abbey in just seven days time, decided on a version of their vows weeks ago but have kept the decision under wraps.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams praised the young couple for their approach to the wedding.

'They have a very simple, very direct picture of what really matters about this event.'

The couple are believed to have ditched tradition and the word 'obey' because after knowing each other for a decade - first at university - they treat each other very much as equals.

Rowan Williams, who will marry the couple, has described a wife pledging to 'obey' her husband and not vice-versa is archaic and could even be used to justify domestic violence.

Guidelines published by the Archbishop's Council in 2006 in the responding to Domestic Abuse report said: ‘A promise to obey was in the past part of different standards and expectations of women and men within marriage, for example the fact that women had no standing in law until 1926.’

At their weddings, William’s grandmother, the Queen, and his aunt, Princess Anne, used the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which requires women to promise to ‘love, cherish and obey’.

The Bishop of Norwich, who conducted Sophie’s wedding to Prince Edward, defended their use of the traditional vows, claiming it was ‘no big deal’.

The Right Reverend Peter Nott said: ‘It is a mistaken assumption that when a bride says she will obey it means she is going to be subservient. It is to do with trust, and with listening, and to recognise that in a family you have different functions.

‘There are times when the husband will rightly obey the wife because she knows better and is the lead in that area.

'The partnership is equal and leadership in a good marriage always shifts. I think obey means “I trust you to make decisions that are for the good of the family”. It’s no big deal.'